AIDS Foundation Lanka always by their side

Both Kamala* and her husband are living with HIV. Her husband is ill and unable to work and it is Kamala who has become the breadwinner, with support from the AIDS Foundation Lanka.

The Foundation conducts awareness programmes across the country on HIV/ AIDS, while linking those living with HIV to health and social services.

Kamala, who is a peanut seller, the Foundation has empowered with a monthly allowance to keep the home fires burning for her family which also includes three children and an ailing mother.

It has also extended a helping hand to Mala* and her son, both living with HIV in another part of the country. A street vendor, selling packets of lunch, to keep starvation away from their door and also educate her son, Mala had found that she was HIV Positive during medical tests when she wanted to go abroad for work.

The father of her boy had abandoned her when she was pregnant and she had sought employment abroad after her son was born, only to face a double blow – living with HIV and abandonment by her man.

These are just two of the many people living with HIV that the Foundation is supporting and also providing a shoulder to unburden themselves of their cares and worries.

Meanwhile, the Foundation members visit the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Angoda, which has an HIV ward, bearing gifts such as fruit, milk, yoghurt, biscuits, tea bags, sugar, toothpaste, toothbrushes, adult pampers, eau de cologne, powder, condom catheters and files which can be used for bedhead tickets, bringing a smile to patients. A recent donation to the ward was a TV.

Silent but continuous has been the service by the AIDS Foundation Lanka for more than a decade.

(*Names have been changed to protect identities)